Testimony

September 15, 2008.  Testimony of James A. Parrott before the New York State Commission on MTA Financing. Albany will have to make some tough choices to align the MTA's recurring spending needs with recurring revenues. It will not be easy to do this during a downturn, but it is imperative that the State and the City put in place a phased-in approach that stabilizes MTA finances for the long term.

June 2, 2008.  Testimony on Proposed Legislation Addressing Real Property Taxation Issues. Presented by FPI Executive Director Frank Mauro to the Senate Standing Committee on Local Government and Assembly Standing Committee on Real Property Taxation. The Middle Class STAR rebate program is better targeted than the original STAR program in that in takes income into consideration. However, Middle Class STAR is still not efficient and equitable property tax relief, since it does not take the size of a homeowner’s property tax bill into consideration and it is still based on county and school district average of important variables. A circuit breaker like S.1053-a/A.1575-a would address both of these shortcomings. The bill would be improved by a broader definition of income.

May 2, 2008.  Testimony on the The Economic Situation of New York City's Low- and Moderate-Income Households. Presented by chief economist James Parrott to the Rent Guidelines Board. A picture of a shallow recovery, high housing cost burdens and a shrinking middle class - plus a local economy in recession.

February 14, 2008.  Testimony on the Cost of Affordable Housing Construction in New York City. Presented by FPI chief economist James Parrott to the Assembly Committee on Housing. Significant fiscal costs arise from the rampant practice in affordable housing construction of illegally misclassifying workers as independent contractors or off the books. Also, paying prevailing wage can actually decrease costs, by attracting more productive workers.

February 11, 2008.  Testimony on the 2008-09 Executive Budget - Economic Development and Taxes. Submitted by FPI executive director Frank Mauro to the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees. Given the many signs that we are in a recession, state leaders must be especially careful about the way they close the state budget gap. Some gap-closing strategies could actually exacerbate the downturn.

February 5, 2008.  Testimony on the 2008-09 Executive Budget - Human Services. Submitted by FPI senior economist Trudi Renwick to the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees. Renwick explains several important policy opportunities for New York: increase the basic welfare grant; liberalize the earned income disregard; finance the Earned Income Tax Credit from the General Fund; and take child care funding out of the Flexible Fund for Family Services (FFFS), to ensure that adequate resources go for this essential work support. Renwick includes a series of charts and tables describing TANF spending in New York.

January 24, 2008.  Statement of Trudi Renwick, Senior Economist Before the Assembly Standing Committee on Higher Education regarding the advantages of a career pathways job training program as part of a comprehensive strengthening of New York's postsecondary education system.

December 18, 2007.  Testimony on economic development in New York State. Submitted by FPI's chief economist James Parrott to the New York State Division of the Budget. New York's trillion dollar economy has the potential to be a dynamic economy that rewards all New Yorkers, but challenges abound, including volatility on Wall Street. And there is little to show for the billions of dollars spent on economic development in 2007 by state and local governments. New York needs a new approach that is strategic, diverse, coordinated and accountable.

December 13, 2007.  Testimony of Frank Mauro before the NYS Division of the Budget Public Hearing on Property Taxes. Description of the special problems faced by New York localities with relatively weak tax bases compared to their needs. To a large extent, state fiscal policies have caused great pressure on property taxes in needy cities, counties and school districts, including decisions: to reduce revenue sharing; to decrease the share of local school budgets covered by state aid, to divide the non-federal share of Medicaid costs without considering ability to pay, and to allocate STAR benefits in a way that exacerbates fiscal disparities.

December 5, 2007. Testimony of Frank Mauro before the NYS Assembly Standing Committee on Real Property Taxation. Using data from the American Community Survey, FPI estimates the cost, number of beneficiaries and average benefits of the circuit breaker credit, as proposed (Galef/Little A.1575/S.1053) and with several modifications.

September 28, 2007.  Testimony on the adequacy of the public assistance grant in New York State. Presented by FPI Senior Economist Trudi Renwick to the Assembly Standing Committee on Social Services.

September 25, 2007.  Testimony on New York State’s Brownfields Cleanup and Opportunity Area Programs. Submitted by FPI Executive Director Frank Mauro to the Senate and Assembly Committees on Environmental Conservation.

September 20, 2007.  Testimony on paid family leave. Presented by FPI Senior Economist Trudi Renwick to the Senate Democratic Conference in Albany.

September 20, 2007.  Testimony on paid family leave. Presented by FPI Director of Communications Jo Brill to Senator Maziarz in Niagara Falls.

March 1, 2007.  Testimony on the 2007-08 Executive Budget. Presented by FPI Senior Economist Trudi Renwick to the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees.

February 28, 2007.  Testimony on the 2007-08 Executive Budget. Presented by FPI Executive Director Frank Mauro to the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees.

August 3, 2006.  Testimony presented by James A. Parrott, FPI's Deputy Director and Chief Economist, to the New York City Industrial Development Agency on its proposal to provide special additional tax breaks to all commercial construction projects in the Hudson Yards area of Manhattan. (PDF)

March 9, 2006.  Rebuilding Ground Zero: Status of the World Trade Center Site Plan. Testimony presented by David Dyssegaard Kallick, FPI Senior Fellow and Coordinator of the Labor Community Advocacy Network to Rebuild New York (LCAN) to the New York City Council's Committee on Lower Manhattan Redevelopment. (PDF)

February 15, 2006.  Testimony presented to the NYS Legislature's Joint Budget Hearing on Economic Development and Taxes by FPI Executive Director Frank Mauro. (HTML)

February 1, 2006.  Testimony presented before the Assembly Standing Committees on Energy, Social Services and Aging joint hearing on "The Implementation and Effectiveness of New York's Low Income  Home Energy Assistance Program." (PDF)